imperial Sand Dunes

leaving Great Sand Dunes
he headed south across the New Mexico high
plain then down the river valley cut
through the mountains towards Santa Fe
the New Mexico adobe southwest style
displays in most of the major architecture
he spent the night in an adobe style Super8
Motel in Santa Fe
the next stop was Yuma
which sits on the borders of California, Arizona and Mexico.

It is largely an agricultural area. Highway 8 winds through Yuma and the Imperial Sand Dunes on its way to San Diego. The view from the window at the Holiday Inn Express, Yuma. The Imperial Sand Dunes are in the Sonora Desert and run from the Mexican border in the south to Highway 78 in California. imperialSandDunes is part of the series "Sand Traps and other Hazzards" which features animations created from videos of golfers swinging a club or riding in a golf cart or carrying golf clubs. The video animation golfCartOnDunes was projected from an aaxa4 pico projector onto a white fabric screen stretched between two metal rods. The source material for the video was recorded at the golf course at Great Sacadanga Lake.

The northern part of the dune region above highway 78 is a national park called Algodones National Wilderness Area and is off limits to motorized vehicles whereas the area south of 78 is home to every conceivable type of vehicle, dune buggy, 3 wheel ATV or motorcycle. Groups of enthusiasts gather together in a number of camping areas surrounding Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area, encircling small areas with RV motorhomes pulling jeeps, trailers, motorcycles, etc. Many of the motor homes are the size of buses. While hiking over the dunes in the southern part of the park so that he could take a better video of the 'wall that george built' separating the United States from Mexico (that is George Bush the younger), an immigrations officer in a pickup truck drove over to see what he was up to. the border patrol agent asked if he had had mechanical troubles. At first he thought he meant his car, but then he realized that the officer meant his ATV because the only reason anyone

would be wandering around on foot would be if their sand traversing vehicle broke down. Actually, breakdowns must be common because a number of people asked him during the day if he was all right as he wandered around other parts of the sand dune park on foot. Some kids wanted to know if he was video recording them on their 3 wheel ATVs for a magazine. he assured them it was nothing so exciting and did not involve making money. Besides motorized enthusiasts, other groups of vacationers sunbathed on hill tops and sand surfed down the dunes. Glamis is a small town on the highway between the dune areas. "no showers available", a sign on a small store in Glamis which sells cold soda or water.